btrax blog

This thing fits in a manila folder, you can probably slide it under a door, it’s the thinnest laptop in the world right now. It’s  a great move that Apple tries to take a another step toward competition by introducing this very sexy laptop. But, there are alway but after something good right?

If you want to use it for design purpose, or try to use some heavyweight application, it won’t cut it. Good looking comes with sacrifice, which in this case-performance. Sporting a 1.6ghz cpu, it does a descent job on maybe just writing your notes or papers, and it will view any website smoothly. However, with the low end video card, programs such as adobe line of products will squeeze that last bit of juice out of it. The bottom line is that the Macbook air was not design for designer, but for casual use.

Since its launch last week on June 17^th 2008, Firefox 3 has hit 17.3 Million downloads! To celebrate the launch, Mozilla encouraged users to participate in Download Day, a day where all downloads made would count towards setting a Guinness world record for the most software downloads within 24 hours. At the end of DownloadDay, there were over 8,000,000 downloads from people all over the world.

Developers claim that they have made 15,000 improvements and added features to make Firefox 3 a faster, safer and smarter web browser. Here are just some of the new features that improve Firefox’s performance, user experience, customization and security.

Performance

• Pages load two to three times faster than Firefox 2 with its improved page rendering
• Uses less memory while running with improved memory management

User Experience

• Smart location bar that adapts to user preferences and provides better matches over time
• One-click bookmarking & bookmark tags to organize your favorite websites
• Session restore
• Built-in spell checking
• Full zoom to see any part of a webpage up-close

Customization

• Over 5,000 add-ons that customize the way you browse the internet
• Themes to change the look and feel of your browser

Security

• Phishing and malware protection to shield you from viruses, trojans and spyware
• Site ID information to verify a website’s legitimacy and protect you from scams and unsafe transactions

For more information:
Download Firefox
World Record Info

According to a recent Wired article, Japanese users have found themselves confounded by the endless list of extra features on their mobile phones, such as TV and motion sensor-based games to name a few.

With the release of the iPhone in Japan later this year, consumers may take to the phone with more enthusiasm than anticipated. Currently, the iPhone ranks as the #1 and #2 Smartphone in the US and UK, respectively, for browsing the internet. This trend may translate over into Japan and cause a paradigm shift in the world of Japanese cell phones, where complicated features are seen as alluring and the iPhone is touted as the answer to streamlining convoluted mobile phone operation.

Research conducted by the Asahi Shimbun shows that the one-way average commuting time for students and workers in Japan is about 72 and 67 minutes in the Tokyo metropolitan area, and 76 and 63 minutes in/around Osaka. Since a majority of the Japanese population has to commute for either work or school, the commuters can use their time more efficiently. Users could browse the internet with ease allowing students to do homework or workers to telecommute from their phones. Consumers who want added features can take advantage of the iPhone’s ability to accommodate third-party SDK’s.

Time can only tell if the iPhone holds the key to simplifying the average consumer’s life in the overworked, island nation.

btrax, Inc. offers design services specifically for sites accessed on an iPhone. More info here.

Japanese telecommunications company Softbank announced this week they will be the carrier for the iPhone, which has yet to debut in Japan. The silvery device has become a fetish item in the U.S. and a the third generation will most likely launched this Monday at Steve Job’s annual address to Mac developers at the WWDC.

One big point of speculation is whether the phone, which leapfrogs many of Japan’s formidable 3G accomplishments such as FOMA’s handheld video calls, is whether Softbank will be the exclusive carrier much like AT&T in the United States. Since Apple has already agreed to multiple carriers in other countries, its doubtful they will limit themselves in Japan, which has one of the highest rates of mobile device usage per capita for activities other than audio calls.

btrax, Inc. offers design services specifically for sites accessed on an iPhone. More info here.

「有力企業の広告宣伝費」（日経広告研究所刊）の2006年広告宣伝費上位1,500社を対象に実施された「モバイル広告利用動向調査」（回答数218）によると、2007年度にインターネット広告を出稿した企業は53.2%（06年比2.1ポイント増）、モバイル広告は18.3%（同4.8ポイント増）だった。

全広告費におけるデジタル広告費率は9.0%で、依然として新聞（同25.2%）、テレビ（同21.7%）、雑誌（同13.7%）への出稿が目立つ。しかし、08年度に広告費を増やす媒体はインターネット広告（34.9%）、モバイル広告（16.5%）、新聞（12.8%）、テレビ（11.9%）、雑誌（11.9%)の順で、逆に広告費を減らす媒体は新聞（24.3%）、雑誌（17.9%)、テレビ（15.1%)、ラジオ（10.6%）が上位に並ぶ。マス広告からデジタル広告へのシフトが如実に表れる結果となった。ターゲットが絞りやすい、効果測定が容易、製作費が安い等の利点を持つデジタル広告への出稿は、今後もますます加速していくことが予測される。

調査主体：　日経広告研究所、日経メディアラボ、株式会社ディーツー　コミュニケーションズ
調査期間：　2008年2月18日～3月18日
参考URL： http://www.d2c.co.jp/var/rev0/0001/0282/d2cnews_08.06.02.pdf